Cover StoryOff
the Soapbox and into the Derby Car: Librarians
Go RacingBy Judith Kirk and Brad DennisThere they were: The dean of the libraries,
staff, faculty, and our student workers doing
something completely unprecedented—working
side-by-side to create an entry for the ­university’s
annual Soapbox Derby.

The soapbox derby is a 30-year-old tradition
at Western Michigan University (WMU) in Kalama­zoo.
Several of the entrants are serious competitors
from the engineering departments and student
engineering organizations. Of course, many more
entrants are from various student organizations
and social fraternities just having fun. At first,
the Library Staff Advisory Board proposed the
idea as a fun event that could potentially bring
library staff, faculty, administration, and students
together on a collaborative project. Only later
did we realize that it was also a great opportunity
to mingle with students and to change the perceptions
that students often have of their traditional
university library.

How We Got into Derby Racing

The first Western Michigan University Libraries
Soapbox Derby car was created in the fall semester
of 2003. Our theme that year was "Where's
Waldo?," named after the first president
of WMU (circa 1903) and namesake of the main
library on campus, Dwight B. Waldo Library.

We figured we’d be no match for the engineering
students, who often dominate the ­winners’ circle.
But we did have some practical expertise in spouses
and friends of staff and students, and an entire
arsenal of library resources at our command.
Starting with student knowledge in automobile
mechanics and professional knowledge of plastics
manipulation and toy science-fiction death-ray
gun design, the enthusiastic team of workers
got underway.

The pit crew members of 2003 were Amy Proni,
special format cataloger, and her husband Tulio,
who were lead engineers with Bryon Vlier, who
actually is an engineer. His wife Eri Vlier,
special format cataloger, is also an artist and
created team T-shirt designs for library employees
in 2003 and 2004, in addition to working on the
car. Jim Dexheimer, rare book and fast cataloging
coordinator; Michael McDonnell, associate professor
and head of government documents; Satit Chamigra­nont,
government documents evening supervisor; John
Winchell, university archives curator; and Chad
Biddix, our gov docs student assistant all lent
some elbow grease to put the car together. Brad
Wistinghausen was pressed into service as the
car’s first driver, as well as another
mechanic.

Faculty, staff, and students spent hours in
employees’ garages discussing, designing,
and finally constructing the derby car. Aerodynamic
principles figured prominently into the design
of the vehicle, and the team took great care
to create a functioning steering mechanism and,
more importantly, a brake.

Gratitude is due dean of libraries Joseph Reish
who personally funded a good portion of this
venture, and who also took great pride in baiting
his fellow deans about the prowess of our derby
car before it had even been tested. The pressure
was on!

Once the car had been built, the Decorations
Committee, headed by Judy Kirk, authority control
coordinator, took over. Since 2003 marked WMU’s
centennial celebration, we wanted to highlight
the past 100 years with our car, and to also
poke gentle fun at Dwight B. Waldo with our car’s
theme. For several months, cataloging department
staff saved book jackets, which were cut apart
and attached to the inside of the car. Several
university landmarks and personages figured into
this collage as well, including former president
Waldo, dean Reish, and the current university
president. We also included many images and ideas
from the recent Where’s Waldo? books.

For a finishing touch, we added an old Michigan
license plate that read 131 WMU. We even ensured
that the derby car could park legally on campus
by obtaining a current faculty/staff parking
sticker.

How the Soapbox Derby Works

Usually the Derby Day is held on Friday of
homecoming week, the first or second week in
October. Derby Day 2003 was hot and humid. Enthusiasm
was running high. The test runs we’d made
with the car were promising, and everyone was
eager to see how we’d hold up against the
engineering students. Many faculty, staff, and
students wore their T-shirts to the race to support
us.

The derby traditionally works like this: Com­petitors’ names
are drawn out of a hat and placed in brackets
in pairs on a big tournament-style chart. Every
driver races at least twice. Those who win their
first race are placed in a bracket to race other
first-place winners. Those who lose their first
heat are placed in a bracket against others who
lost. Cars have to be less than 6' long with
axle lengths between 3 and 5 feet. There are
also some other crazy rules like mandatory helmets,
no glass windows, and no added weight to the
car to make it go faster. The University Police
help by blocking cross traffic for a short 1-minute
run on a curved campus road known as Gilkison
Avenue. The engineering students measured the
lanes and discovered that the outside lane is
8' longer than the inside lane. But the starting
blocks are not staggered, so, for obvious reasons,
the outside lane is bad luck.

The assortment of entries was amazing and reflected
all levels of expertise. One in particular attempted
to imitate the black Lincoln Continental from
National Lampoon’s Animal House, sporting
a gleaming silver skull with lit red eyes on
the hood. A group of students decorated a grocery
cart, which promptly fell over at the beginning
of its first heat. Undaunted, their team posed
around it while friends took pictures. Other
cars had wheels pop off and steering wheels break,
and some entries just disintegrated entirely
(but no serious injuries occurred).

How We Fared in the Races

The library team had reporters on the scene
who used their cell phones to call in the results
to the administrative secretary, who e-mailed
Race Bulletins to everyone in the library. More
faculty, staff, and students came out during
their lunch breaks to cheer us on.

Almost unbelievably, our car kept winning ...
and winning! One by one, the student cars fell
by the wayside (or just literally fell off the
starting ramp). It was becoming clear that age
and experience were overcoming youthful enthusiasm.
Some of the students began enthusiastically supporting
our car, and one student crowed jubilantly, “The
library’s kickin’ ass!”

Finally, there were two teams left—ours
and the indomitable Society of Physical Engineers
(driving a tried-and-true car from past years).
In a final, exciting heat, we were nosed out
(by 1 lousy foot!) at the very end. But coming
in second was a tremendous rush for everyone.
No one was more surprised than we were! We made
such a splash that Library
Journal mentioned
us in November 2003 for the creative marketing
idea. The local campus newspaper also mentioned
us.

Finishing a close second inspired us to enter
again in 2004. We made some basic repairs. (We
replaced a top panel that had cracked and replaced
the wheels with a second set of official Soapbox
Derby wheels.) The team also removed the 2003
decorations and held a contest to create a new
slogan. Brad Dennis, education librarian, joined
the pit crew and led the contest where all staff,
faculty, and students employed by the WMU Libraries
were encouraged to think of slogans and to vote.
Our new slogan was “More Than Books @ Your
Library.”

Derby Day 2004 was overcast, and much cooler
than 2003. We held a pep rally (and had also
planned a post-race pizza party). Once again,
however, there were three engineering entries.
Pride was a major issue for them; there was no
way they would be defeated again by “some
bunch of librarians”!

Once again, the savvy of the driver (this year
it was Nick Dombrowski, central reference student
assistant) and the aerodynamic design helped
the University Libraries’ entry move its
way up the ladder. Luck of the draw often put
our car in the outside, longer lane. Despite
this, we still held our own until the quarter-finals,
when we were finally defeated by the entry that
went on to win the Derby itself. That car had
been created by a pair of honors engineering
students as part of an independent project. So
for the second time we didn’t win, but
we’d lost to the car that eventually did.

What the Derby Entries Have Done for Us

We made a lot of admiring friends of the students
who enjoyed seeing us out there playing right
next to them. We had made a great opportunity
for the Western Michigan University Libraries
to meet with students and to show them that we
are not a bunch of “stuffy librarians,” but
rather, approachable people who like to have
as much fun as they do. It was a gamble that
paid off, this marketing tool. It also brought
faculty, staff, and students together in the
library in a way that hadn’t happened before,
and it bodes well for future endeavors. (We do
plan to enter the derby again this fall.)

We even took the Western Michigan University
Libraries Soapbox Derby car to ALA and displayed
it at the Swap & Shop in Chicago. Now, the
derby car continues to promote our library and
our refreshed image. It sits in the rotunda of
Dwight B. Waldo Library, visible to all patrons
who enter.

Our library, like yours, is indeed “more
than books.” Ultimately, it is a service
and it is real people working hard, both behind
the scenes and in public service areas, creating
new and innovative ways to bring the library
to the guests that we serve.

Judith
Kirk is the
authority control coordinator at Western Michigan
University Libraries in Kalamazoo. She has a
B.A.in English and library science from WMU.
Her e-mail address is judith.a.kirk@wmich.edu.

Brad Dennis is assistant professor and
education librarian at WMU. He is also the chair
of the University Libraries marketing committee.
Dennis has a B.A. in history from WMU and an
M.L.I.S. from Wayne State University. His
e-mail address is brad.dennis@wmich.edu.